Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion

Jazz is a uniquely American art form, one of America's great contributions to not only musical culture, but world culture, with each generation of musicians applying new levels of creativity that take the music in unexpected directions that defy definition, category, and stagnation. Now you can learn the basics and history of this intoxicating genre in an eight-lecture series that is as free-flowing and original as the art form itself.

Like Jazz, this sounds improvised

Professor Messenger is truly a master of jazz. His demonstrations are entertaining and help the listener with jazz and the historical tale that weaves..Show More » in and out of the demonstrations helps put the various styles into perspective.

Unfortunately, like the jazz that he is demonstrating, the eight lectures sound improvised.For example, the topics that are covered are many and the argument can be made that not enough time has been given to the topics. Professor Messenger does not deal with the time issues well. Thus we get one half a lecture dealing with one blues artist because she is available, while modern jazz, fusion, free jazz and bebop are all crammed into one lecture.

Also, many references are made to recordings that are never played. Often it seems as if these examples have just popped into Professor Messengers head.

In conclusion, a better "road map" is needed, if the time is to be utilized better. OTOH, the historical information is very good.

How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition

Great music is a language unto its own, a means of communication of unmatched beauty and genius. And it has an undeniable power to move us in ways that enrich our lives-provided it is understood.If you have ever longed to appreciate great concert music, to learn its glorious language and share in its sublime pleasures, the way is now open to you, through this series of 48 wonderful lectures designed to make music accessible to everyone who yearns to know it, regardless of prior training or knowledge.

A Beginning to a Delinquent Education

I need to start this review with my background and motivation for my review to make sense in context. I would like to consider myself a fairly well-e..Show More »ducated person holding multiple degrees from three different universities. Somehow, though, my education completely omitted anything involving music. Sure, I was required to take fine arts electives in high school and college, but I managed to miss music appreciation entirely. Needless to say, I have never picked-up an instrument, know next to nothing about music fundamentals, and have not one ounce of music talent or ability.

This deficiency in my education never caused a problem until I learned that my daughter is required to learn an instrument and take music during middle school. Thankfully, my wife played an instrument through high school and has at least some ability to help my daughter as she starts this part of her education. I do not, however, like being ignorant and do not want to be in the position of being utterly clueless about what my daughter is learning. Thus, I am motivated for the first time in my life to learn at least something about music.

I have experience with the Great Courses series and thought this would be the place to start my delinquent musical education. I am glad that I did. The professor uses a historical approach, which works well with the way that I think, and takes the student through Ancient Greek music all the way through the early part of the 20th Century. A complete list of the topics can be found on the Great Courses website.

The professor presents the thesis throughout the course that music is a mirror of the people who composed it and the time in which it was created. This is a long course and requires a lot of dedication, but the professor slowly builds a vocabulary for the student helping someone like me with zero background begin to understand the way that music is composed. I will freely admit that much of what the professor explained still went over my head, and I frequently turned to Wikipedia for more background information. I decided as my next class to listen to the professor's course on Understanding the Fundamentals of Music to continue building on my knowledge.

I bought many of the musical works he discussed in the class so I could listen to them in their entirety and see if I could pick-out some of the details learned from the course. I still feel like a near idiot, but I was proud of the progress I made. For instance, I can now listen to a traditional four movement symphony by Haydn or Mozart and understand why the second movement is typically slow and the fourth movement is typically fast. I can now provide a semi-intelligent answer to explain the stylistic differences between Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. If nothing else, I at least now know which came first. I still have a very long way to go, but I at least have a foundation on which to build. I can honestly say that I now have an interest in classical music (excuse me, to use the terminology from the course—"concert music") and appreciate listening to it, even if I am not yet picking up on all of the subtleties. The professor has not yet inspired me to go so far as listening to opera in my spare time, but I am now eager to learn more about music.

If I have any complaint, it is that I would like more guidance on where to go from here. There are more than a dozen courses in the Great Courses collection by this same professor. It would be nice to have a recommendation at tend end on which courses to take in which order to build a good, solid foundation of musical understanding. I assume the music fundamentals course that I just started is a good second stop on this journey, but I wonder what the professor would recommend in terms of taking courses on specific composers, the class on the symphony, the class on great orchestral works, etc….

As a closing note, I read criticisms of the professor in other reviews for his frequent, sometimes corny, jokes. I might be in the minority, but I actually liked most of his jokes because it made the material more relatable and kept the mood lighter, though, yes, the jokes can be corny at times. This is a course that could have very easily turned into a high-brow, hoity-toity snob-fest designed to intimidate the neophyte listener. The professor's casual, yet respectful, attitude kept that from happening. This was an excellent course for a complete beginner, and I imagine that someone with more background would get even more out of it.

The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works

Over the centuries, orchestral music has given us a category of works that stand apart as transcendent expressions of the human spirit. What are these "greatest of the greats"? Find out in these 32 richly detailed lectures that take you on a sumptuous grand tour of the symphonic pieces that continue to live at the center of our musical culture.These 30 masterworks form an essential foundation for any music collection and a focal point for understanding the orchestral medium and deepening your insight into the communicative power of music.

If they cut off both hands, I will compose music..

If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth. Dimitri Shostakovich

This lecture series by Robert Green..Show More »berg on the 30 Greatest Orchestral Works is an amazing journey through music and the history of music starting with Vivaldi and ending with Shostakovich.

I learned a great deal about music and especially the composers and what they tried to accomplish through their music. I had no idea that at one time composers working for patrons were expected to come up with something new every month and didn't start writing their works down until people started asking them to play something again. Can you imagine how many great works were lost because they were not written down?

Concert Masterworks

Have you ever thought about the creative process that boiled inside geniuses like Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorák, Strauss, Brahms, Mendelssohn, or Liszt-or any composer, for that matter?What goes through a composer's mind when a musical composition is being set to paper? Are those magical weeks or months spent in an agonizing creative blur of ideas first tried and then discarded, or it a matter of pure inspiration?

A great way to add to your concertgoing experience

This is the best credit I've spent in a long time. Rather than just providing technical details and historical context, Professor Greenberg explains e..Show More »xactly what another composer would be listening for in each of these works. The result is eye-opening, even for someone who regularly attends orchestral concerts.

If you've listened to Professor Greenberg's "30 Greatest Orchestral Works" in the same series, Concert Masterworks is deeper and more engaging in every way.

Bach and the High Baroque

Though unappreciated in his own time, Johann Sebastian Bach has ascended to Olympian heights, the verdict of contemporary audiences long since overruled by succeeding generations of music lovers. But what makes his music great? In this series of 32 lectures, a working composer and musicologist brings his exceptional teaching skills to the task of helping you hear the extraordinary sweep of Bach's music. You'll understand the compositional language that enabled him to compose such extravagant, unbridled music while still maintaining precise control of every aspect - beat, melody, melodic repetition, interaction, and harmony.

Bach Treasure Box Opened by a True Enthusiast

Apart from one or two Toccata and Fugues, I really could not "hear" Bach. Professor Robert Greenberg has enabled me hear Bach's music, and has turned ..Show More »me into a Bach enthusiast. Professor Greenberg is a gifted lecturer who imparts both knowledge and enthusiasm for his subject. He is also a charismatic lecturer. I am so glad the Great Courses have been added to Audible. They are not only educational, they make a refreshing change from current fiction of all genres, which for the most part has become predictable and mostly uninteresting.

The Symphonies of Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven is justifiably acclaimed as one of the most revered composers in the history of Western music-a genius once characterized as a "Titan, wrestling with the gods." There is no better way for you to understand the full impact of that description than to not only listen to all nine of his magnificent symphonies, but to do so with a full understanding of what this great composer was saying and the circumstances that drove him up to and beyond what had once been considered the limits of musical expression.

Truly the course materials MUST be made available.

Yes, because being new to music theory I didn't absorb it all the first time, but would very much like to.

How to Listen to and Understand Opera

To watch any opera lover listen to a favorite work, eyes clenched tight in concentration and passion, often betraying a tear, is to be almost envious. What must it be like, you might think, to love a piece of music so much?And now one of music's most gifted teachers is offering you the opportunity to answer that very question, in a spellbinding series of 32 lectures that will introduce you to the transcendentally beautiful performing art that has enthralled audiences for more than 400 years.

9 The Growth of Opera, the Development of Italian Opera Seria, and Mozart's Idomeneo, I

10 The Growth of Opera, the Development of Italian Opera Seria, and Mozart's Idomeneo, II

11 The Growth of Opera, the Development of Italian Opera Seria, and Mozart's Idomeneo, III

12 The Growth of Opera, the Development of Italian Opera Seria, and Mozart's Idomeneo, IV

13 The Rise of Opera Buffa and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, I

14 The Rise of Opera Buffa and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, II

15 The Rise of Opera Buffa and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, III

16 The Rise of Opera Buffa and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, IV

17 The Bel Canto Style and Rossini's The Barber of Seville, I

18 The Bel Canto Style and Rossini's The Barber of Seville, II

19 Verdi and Otello, I

20 Verdi and Otello, II

21 Verdi and Otello, III

22 Verdi and Otello, IV

23 French Opera, I

24 French Opera, II

25 German Opera Comes of Age

26 Richard Wagner and Tristan und Isolde, I

27 Richard Wagner and Tristan und Isolde, II

28 Late Romantic German Opera—Richard Strauss and Salome

29 Russian Opera, I

30 Russian Opera, II

31 Verismo, Puccini, and Tosca, I

32 Verismo, Puccini, and Tosca, II

I love Professor Greenberg’s lectures and when I saw this one available on Audible I had to try it. I have never been an opera buff before (except for a fondness to Mighty Mouse growing up) but since joining Amazon Prime and noticing all of the great operas available to listen or watch on Video, I have been catching up.

What Professor Greenberg does in these lectures, (32 45 minutes in length) is tell you the history of Opera, give you some examples of some great Operas and just let you listen and enjoy.

Things I learned from this course:

1. Opera got it’s start in monastic Gregorian chants and other early choral works.2. The language that an opera is written determines it’s style. Italian is very expressive, while German is more guttural, if you understand what I mean. 3. There are so many operas out there to enjoy, and I can’t wait!I enjoyed listening to these lectures while I was in the hospital recently and it really got me through.

If you want to stretch your mind outside of your usual course, I highly recommend any class by Professor Robert Greenberg. He knows how to make music interesting and he makes it easy to understand. This was a real joy to hear.

Great Masters: Haydn - His Life and Music

Almost from the moment it was first set to paper, the music of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - technically superb, rich in quality, and widely imitated - has exemplified the Classical style, creating not only the Classical-era symphony but setting the standard, through his own 68 string quartets, against which that form has ever after been judged. And yet Haydn, despite the influence left by more than 1000 works, seems to no longer get his due, Now, in a series of eight vivid lectures, you can learn to understand and appreciate the music of one of the most original and influential composers of all time.

Another masterpiece from Greenberg

The narrator makes this great. He varies his pace, foreshadows, goes on occasional rants and just makes this biography very entertaining. I have lis..Show More »tened to his long form courses. this is a great sample for someone who wants to try him out.

Great Masters: Mozart - His Life and Music

Even from the perspective of time, it is nearly impossible to grasp the full contribution made to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in his brief and glorious life. He composed his first symphony at the age of 8 and reached full artistic maturity by the time he was only 20. And when he died at the age of 35, he left a legacy of more than 600 works of brilliance - symphonies, chamber music, operas, and more - most composed during an incredibly productive 20-year period.

More Great Listening!

After having listened to Dr. Greenberg's course on the Thirty Greatest Orchestra Works, I had to have more, and decided to give this one a try. Altho..Show More »ugh I have always had a great appreciation for the music of Mozart and truly love many of the things he has written, I can’t say that he has been one of my all time favorite composers. With the insights I gained from this Great Courses class taught by Dr. Robert Greenberg, I must say the great genius has moved up in my estimation. My understanding of his music is markedly better, and I can now say he truly is one of my favorite composers. The world lost him way too soon at the age of nearly 36, but thank goodness for the things he was able to give us.

Great Masters: Tchaikovsky - His Life and Music

Although we often think of an artist's work as a window into their own inner world, that is not always the case.In the life of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, however, we can see perhaps the closest link to be found anywhere between a creative product and the shifting moods of a turbulent soul, which found its outlet through the glorious music created by the great Russian composer.To know his music, you must know the man, and this fast-moving series of eight lectures from an award-winning composer and accomplished teacher offers an insightful look into both the circumstances of Tchaikovsky's life and the impact that life had on his music.

Spectacular

Robert Greenberg's Great Masters are the BEST "Great Courses" lectures that I have heard until now. I loved Beethoven's courses and I loved Tchaikovsk..Show More »y's as well. Greenberg's style is unique: he speaks full of passion, the characters are well painted, the music is properly inserted.He points out to the music for example-- listen to the oboe, or look how the piano is the superb instrument-- and demonstrates the mood of the author at that precise time-- here he was sad, then he was happy. He retells with music the history of Tchaikovsky's life, his torments, and greatness.Robert Greenberg's lectures are as entertaining as educational. Listen to them. You won't regret!

Great Masters: Stravinsky - His Life and Music

Stravinsky composed what is arguably one of the two most important musical compositions of the twentieth century, The Rite of Spring. He forged a new "musical language" to portray the sense of the ballet's primitive and earthy theme. More than a dozen excerpts of Stravinsky's works are examined.

Right Up the Middle

After a very disappointing Wagner course followed by a stupendous Shostakovich course, I decided to put Greenberg in the lineup once again. This cours..Show More »e started rather pleasantly with solid biographical background and excellent musical analysis of Stravinsky's early life and works. There's the typical Greenberg train wreck at about mid way through. He launches into a sort of "whose on first" dialogue about Stravinsky and another artist discussing a new piece.

Again, the jokes. This time we get a full routine smack in the middle of a serious discussion about World War 1 and the Russian Revolution. From there out, we get the usual corny Greenberg humor but not in as strong an application as usual. Perhaps his seemingly endless parody satisfied the frustrated comedian long enough to limp through the remaining lectures without need to ham it up?

I did learn from the course and enjoyed it for the most part. I am, however, weary of Greenberg's jokes which detract much from the subject matter. If you want to learn a bit about Stravinsky and get some insight into the technical aspects of his music, buy the course knowing you'll have to endure some bad humor.

The Great Courses should consider adding a couple of other music experts to their stable. It would be wonderful to have some variety in this category.

While not a home run, the course is a hit that will get you to first base of Stravinsky understanding. It's got some solid content and Greenberg obviously knows his stuff. Scale way back on the sophomoric humor and this would be a much better course.

Great Masters: Beethoven - His Life and Music

Have you ever wondered how the lives of great composers-especially when set against the social, political, and cultural context of their world-influences their music?After listening to this perceptive series of eight lectures on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven, you will likely find that you hear his work in an entirely different way, your insight informed by new knowledge of how Beethoven was able to create masterpieces from the crises of his life.You'll learn about the years of progressive hearing loss-ultimately to produce total deafness-and the understandable agony and rage such a fate would bring upon a composer. About his deep depression over the end of his relationship with the woman he calls his Immortal Beloved. About his pathological hatred of authority, his persecution complex, even delusional behaviors.But you'll also learn how each of these crises, and many others, served to drive Beethoven inward, to reinvent himself and redeem his suffering through art, creating disruptive works of profound passion and beauty that reinvented the nature of musical expression in the Western world.

The strangest rabbit hole yet!

I have been journeying with Dr. G for several months now. Whenever I feel at a loss, I grab a supplemental lecture and jump down the rabbit hole. So I..Show More » have learned about the lives of Bach and Mozart, and about the concerto and look forward to learning about the symphony—while using “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music” as my foundation. I just got back from the life of Beethoven—amazing music, amazing but wild gent—not at all what I expected--his life was more difficult, more sad. But I am stunned by how he changed the course of music despite the struggles of his own life. I will listen to his music with a different ear.

Great Masters: Mahler - His Life and Music

More than many other composers, Gustav Mahler's works are highly personal expressions of his inner world, a world of overwhelming alienation and loneliness. You'll learn, through both lectures and musical excerpts, how his symphonies are vast repositories of his intellectual, emotional, and spiritual expression that made him the first exponent of Expressionism, the early 20th-century art movement that celebrates inner reality as the only reality - but explored by Mahler using the musical language of the century just ended.

A Great Survey of Mahler's Life and Major Works

Good enough that my major complaint is I wish it were just longer. Professor Greenberg with his wit, knowledge, and charisma is able to draw a nice na..Show More »rrative arc through the life of Gustav Mahler. This course is broken into 8 lectures:

It all felt a bit too compressed for me. Perhaps I'm just spoiled because I've been listening also to his 30 Greatest Orchestral Works and each piece in that recording is given a whole lecture (45 minutes). I would have liked to see more time on each of his major symphonies and works AND not lose any of the actual history.

But really, that is my only major complaint. I would recommend for the serious listener to also go buy the major symphonies (from major labels and great conductors) and listen to them a couple times while listening to this course. I fell in love with Mahler's 5th & 9th before this course, but this course gave me a lot more of Mahler to love.

Great Masters: Brahms-His Life and Music

Johannes Brahms was a man of contrasts. His serious Teutonic music was balanced by joyful dance music. His kindness to working people with a biting, malicious wit reserved for those he encountered in artistic and aristocratic circles. Yet you can know this enigmatic genius though this 8-lecture series, which uses biographical information and musical commentary to link the complexities of Brahms the man with the electrifying music of Brahms the composer.

First class introduction to a wonderful composer

How have I gone so long in life getting so much joy from the works of Brahms without understanding something of this great composer and his life. Ho..Show More »w many times has my heart been lifted listening to his violin and piano concerti, his symphonies -- oh, why did I start making a list, all his works are all wonderful.

Upon downloading this series of lectures,a new and eminently accessible view of Brahms was revealed. I've only just finished listening and I am still under its spell.

Yet, for the listener who knows little or nothing about classical music, let alone who Brahms actually is, this would be an inspiring introduction. Professor Greenburg is funny, insightful, compassionate, and at times, delightfully satirical -- in short, a clever and effective communicator. Infectious, really.

Great Masters: Liszt - His Life and Music

More than anyone before him - more than Beethoven, Byron, even the preternatural Paganini - it was Franz Liszt who created one of the most enduring archetypes of the Romantic era: that of the artist "who walks with God and brings down fire from heaven in order to kindle the hearts of humankind." For every lover of music, Liszt remains someone you must understand, and this eight-lecture series is an ideal place to begin your acquaintance with both the man and his music.

The Greatest Liszt Presentation Ever

The Great Courses series can often be a mixed bag of tricks, but Robert Greenberg's "Great Masters: Liszt - His Life and Music" is the third Great Mas..Show More »ters lecture series I've downloaded and the best so far. Not only has Professor Greenberg enlightened and clarified certain aspects of Liszt's career, his insight into the scores and physical requirements of the performers were fascinating to listen to. Of all the varied Great Courses I've sat in on, Greenberg's are the most thoughtful, well researched, best organized, most clearly articulated and, without a doubt, contain the greatest level of enthusiasm. My only complaint was that the course eventually ended. The professionalism of Professor Greenberg was exceptional. No stuttering "ah, ah" pauses, extreme organization and captivating audience engagement. The man loves his work and succeeds in passing that endearment on to the listener. Justice was certainly done to the great Franz Liszt.

Great Masters: Robert and Clara Schumann - Their Lives and Music

In all the annals of Western music, there has never been a couple like the Schumanns: he a pioneering critic and composer (the only ever to achieve greatness as both), she one of the leading concert pianists of Europe, as well as a composer of no small talent herself. This series of eight lectures by an award-winning composer and acclaimed teacher includes excerpts of works by both of the Schumanns as part of an introduction to an extraordinary couple and the musical legacy left to us in spite of the difficulties that dogged their marriage.

Soap Opera Lives of the Great Masters

This lecture has it all domineering father making his money from his daughters talents. Sound just like some the child stars of our lifetime. Husbands..Show More » jealous of his wife's talent and career. Stories of the stars hob nobbling together. What more could you ask for? And the music oh the wonderful music and history about how it was conceived and composed.

This is my fourth lecture in this series hope to listen to them all before years end.

Great Masters: Shostakovich - His Life and Music

Dmitri Shostakovich is without a doubt one of the central composers of the 20th century. Drawing on both the flood of declassified documents from the Soviet Union that began in 1991 and Shostakovich's own extraordinarily frank posthumous reminiscences, Professor Greenberg shows how Shostakovich, who, in the words of a friend, "did not want to rot in a prison or a graveyard" was still unwilling to become a docile instrument of the Soviet regime.

Living the Great Terror

Prof Greenberg brings us through the life of this great composer against the backdrop of Stalin's regime during the purges before and after WW2. It i..Show More »s an unforgettable tour de force of music and history that makes you cringe and maybe even cry. Set in context, this body of work is a microcosm of the horror, and yet beautiful too. We stand in awe of what it took to bring art out of this turmoil that was the USSR when just surviving was a risk. Listening to this series is will bring it to life, amazing!

The Operas of Mozart

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in 1791 at the age of just 35, he nonetheless left behind the defining composition in every available musical genre of his time: symphony, chamber music, masses, and above all - opera. Opera was the prestige genre of the era, and the thought of it, Mozart wrote, made him, "beside myself at once." It was a form he loved dearly, depending on it heavily for personal, professional, artistic, and financial reasons of the greatest weight.

One of the best values on Audible!

First of all, I have several Great Courses for which I paid full price from the Teaching Company - I love the courses and get a lot of pleasure out of..Show More » listening to them. The value of being able to get Great Courses for one Audible Credit per course is ALONE worth an annual Audible subscription.

Second, I think Robert Greenberg's Music Courses are terrific and really one of the best uses of the audio book format for university level lectures. You not only hear the discussion of the music but hear music samples as well which makes it far superior to books about music history which can't provide samples of the music discussed. Greenberg's choices of music to illustrate the points he make are always excellent and really make listening to these lectures an enormous pleasure. Like others have said elsewhere, he can be quite corny -if that bothers you this is not the professor you will want to hear. I find his energy and enthusiasm makes the course more interesting and his attempts at humor are rather endearing (it may be that people from New Jersey find corniness less offensive). I appreciate his attempts to liven things up even if some of the jokes are rather silly.

Third, although I am not particularly knowledgeable about music the more I get to know opera the more I realize how very much I love Mozart's operas. It is true that Greenberg spends a lot of time on Cosi Fan Tutte as another listener noted. I didn't expect this to be exhaustive but rather Greenberg's own view of the most interesting aspects of Mozart's operas since it is still an introductory level course. For someone as prolific as Mozart it didn't surprise me that the professor made a selection based on his views. However, if you are expecting it to be exhaustive you will not be satisfied. Greenberg is very informative but selective, and with me that's OK.

Lastly, some negative comments have been made on the lack of librettos included with the course - those librettos are not part of the more expensive versions of the course either. You have to get librettos on your own - there are no entire operas included in the course, only excerpts so I don't know why anyone would think a libretto would be needed to follow the lectures. Some of the complaints made by listeners are very picky considering the comparative value of getting these courses so cheaply on Audible.

The Life and Operas of Verdi

The Italians have a word for the sense of dazzling beauty produced by effortless mastery: sprezzatura. And perhaps no cultural form associated with Italy is as steeped in the love of sprezzatura as opera, a genre the Italians invented. No composer has embodied the ideal of sprezzatura as magnificently as Giuseppe Verdi, the gruff, self-described "farmer" from the Po Valley who gave us 28 operas and remains to this day the most popular composer in the genre's 400-year-old history.

The Symphony

From its humble beginnings in the 17th-century Along the way, it has embraced nearly every trend to be found in Western concert music.In this series of twenty-four 45-minute lectures, Professor Greenberg guides you on a survey of the symphony.

Super Survey of Symphonies

Greenberg is a superb lecturer who presents the symphony across the centuries in an electrifying and edifying manner. He brings each composer and his..Show More » work to life. There are composers of whom I had never heard and I am better off now. But for even the familiar ones I have a deeper appreciation.

The Chamber Music of Mozart

Nowhere is Mozart's maturity and mastery more apparent than in the chamber music he wrote during the last 10 years of his life. These 16 lectures take you deep inside the structure of Mozart's chamber masterworks to reveal his hand at work. This is an amazing opportunity to hear, study, and enjoy a selection of immortal musical compositions that Professor Greenberg calls "a blessing of inconceivable richness". You will learn the basic "language" that all 18th-century composers used to write Classical music. You'll also explore the subtleties of Mozart's technique as a composer: his ability to make art "artless".

Underrated table music ?

Until now I tended to overlook the chamber music in general or thought it was rather entertaining music. Absolutely not! Prof. Greeberg shows and expl..Show More »ains it to be like a small shining diamods full of life, humour, both of amusement and intelectual pleasure too.I cant't recommend it more ...

The String Quartets of Beethoven

In this musically rich 24-lecture series, Professor Greenberg guides you in a deep encounter with these majestic works of art, offering you the rare opportunity to grasp the musical riches and spiritual greatness of the quartets in a clear and accessible way. Each of these lectures is a rare and life-enriching opportunity to know the scope of Beethoven's genius, his most unforgettable music, and the profound humanity and beauty that live through them.

Another excellent series

Professor Greenberg once again guides you through a difficult subject with sharp insights and great wit.

Like his symphonies, Beethoven's str..Show More »ing quartets span his entire career and offer great diversity in terms of composition and expression. Having an authority like Dr Greenberg walk you through them and provide context makes them that much more enjoyable.

BONUS: The Alexander String Quartets' recording is available for free in Amazon Prime Music.

Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

A revolutionary man living in a revolutionary time, Beethoven used the piano as his personal musical laboratory. The piano sonata became, more than any other genre of music, a place where he could experiment with harmony, motivic development, the contextual use of form, and, most important, his developing view of music as a self-expressive art.Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas include some of his most popular works as well as some of his most experimental.

Amazing per ALWAYS

I cannot recommend Robert Greenberg enough. If you have even the slightest interest in music - even if it's just a general sense of appreciation and n..Show More »ot for the topic of his/said lecture series you're considering, you'll enjoy this scholar's personality, specialized perspectives, ability to tie his broader knowledge base to the topic, contemporary references both for us and for the subjects' time periods, energy, personal insight as an academic and a composer (overlap is significant within his course subjects with university and state posts full of political intrigue and power politics as well as an artist's perspective [as we know it or evidence suggests] paired with his own experiences and so forth) and his sheer enthusiasm for the topics he teaches. If you don't like this guy's courses ya' might be a stick in the mud (or seriously just NOT into the topics or history ... I suppose it can happen! Ha.). Check him out.

The Concerto

The concerto offers a kind of unique excitement no other instrumental music can match. Where a symphony enthralls us with its thematic variations and development, a concerto gives us human drama-the exhilaration of a soloist or group of soloists ringing forth against the mass of the orchestra.In 24 musically rich lectures, Professor Greenberg provides a guided tour of the concerto, from its conception as a child of Renaissance ideals, through its maturation in the Classical age, its metamorphosis in the Romantic era, and its radical transformation in the 20th century and beyond.

Better than "How to Listen to...Great Music!"

This course is indispensable for anyone who enjoys concert or symphonic music. Dr. Greenberg's _How to Listen to and Understand Great Music_ was my in..Show More »troduction to The Teaching Company. I saved for years to be able to buy that introductory course, and have listened to it over and over. "The Concerto" is better still, because every moment of every lecture is on point and fascinates me.

The Music of Richard Wagner

In these 24 lectures filled with musical excerpts, enjoy a rich and multifaceted exploration of the trailblazing works and outsized life of this historically pivotal composer. The sheer outlandishness of Wagner's life makes for an endlessly intriguing story, from his desperate escapades outrunning creditors to his obsessive personal relationships to his utopian artistic schemes.

Wonderful

Among the best.

Reviewed on October 14 2013
by Acteon
(Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

Great American Music: Broadway Musicals

Rodgers and Hart. George and Ira Gershwin. Cole Porter. Lerner and Loewe. For most people who've grown up with and shared America's musical heritage, great songs open the floodgates to memories and feelings. Perhaps nowhere is this more profound than in the world of Broadway musicals, with their iconic melodies and memorable lyrics.Revisit the standards, originally written for the stage, that have both delighted and helped mend the broken hearts of Americans for decades.

More than just a lesson on Musical Theatre!!!

This fabulous course gives an excellent history of the American musical with the focus placed firmly where it should be... on the music. Professor Mes..Show More »senger's voice is relaxing and knowledge is impressive. He paints the picture of history with both facts and narrative but also gives the audience a taste of the music he is describing through his on piano renditions, recordings from the period, and reconstructed recordings where no original recording exists. As a theatre artist and musical theatre professional, I found this course to be both edifying and enjoyable, which are the two things that any great piece of theatre should be. For this course is more then just a lesson on musical theatre it is a piece of theatre itself.

The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works

The piano is the most popular solo concert instrument in Western music. One of the key reasons is the fact that it has inspired many of the greatest masterpieces in the concert repertoire. To study these masterworks and to understand their genius and lasting appeal is to know one of the greatest accomplishments of Western culture, works that give great pleasure even as they deepen your insight into the meaning of music.

Wonderful!

My degree is in Classical piano, and, still, I learned so much.Thank you. I will listen to it again.

The Great Works of Sacred Music

Beginning with medieval chant, discover how its single musical line evolved into polyphony (music with multiple simultaneous melodies). You'll also learn how the religious reformations of the 16th century compelled composers to create new musical genres and to make religious texts more intelligible. Additionally, observe how 17th-century composers blended sacred styles with genres such as opera, producing music of dramatic and unforgettable beauty.

A Worthy Course

This is the fifth music appreciation course I have taken from the Great Courses. I had no experience with music appreciation before beginning my educ..Show More »ation through these series of lectures. If you are like me and have little or no musical background, then I do not recommend starting with this particular course because the professor assumes some basic knowledge of terminology and music history. I strongly recommend beginning with Professor Greenburg's How to Listen to and Understand Great Music course before moving on to this one. If I have a complaint about this particular course, it would be that it is too short. The main topic omitted, which the professor openly admits, is music designed for congregational singing. In other words, this course focuses on music designed to be sung to the audience rather than music to be sung by the audience. So, this course omits most familiar religious songs commonly heard in church services. I wish the course was expanded to include enough lectures to incorporate this topic. That being said, this is still a wonderful course, and I learned a great deal such as the history of Handel's Messiah and Haydn's Creation. I purposely timed when I listened to this course so I could listen to the last lecture close to Christmas. The last lecture is by far the best and is dedicated to the history of Christmas music. The professor does a great job explaining the development of the Christmas music tradition.

Music as a Mirror of History

In Music as a Mirror of History, Great Courses favorite Professor Greenberg of San Francisco Performances returns with a fascinating and provocative premise: Despite the abstractness and the universality of music - and our habit of listening to it divorced from any historical context - music is a mirror of the historical setting in which it was created. Music carries a rich spectrum of social, cultural, historical, and philosophical information, all grounded in the life and experience of the composer.

Unique interdisciplinary music-history treatment

Greenberg's obvious command of both history and music, and the extensive research that informs his expertise. The interdisciplinary nature of the cour..Show More »se is unique.